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Understanding Characterization Types

The document discusses characterization in literature, highlighting its importance in revealing a character's behavior, psychology, and motives through various methods. It distinguishes between round characters, who are complex and undergo change, and flat characters, who are simpler and serve to support the narrative without significant development. Additionally, it encourages writers to create detailed character descriptions to enhance their understanding and portrayal of characters in their stories.

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13 views8 pages

Understanding Characterization Types

The document discusses characterization in literature, highlighting its importance in revealing a character's behavior, psychology, and motives through various methods. It distinguishes between round characters, who are complex and undergo change, and flat characters, who are simpler and serve to support the narrative without significant development. Additionally, it encourages writers to create detailed character descriptions to enhance their understanding and portrayal of characters in their stories.

Uploaded by

survivor000111
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Types of

Characterization
Faiza Arshad
Characterization
• Characterization (care-ack-tur-ih-ZEY-shun) uses context
and detail to reveal something about a character. In
literature, characterization is expressed directly and
indirectly through physical descriptions, dialogue,
characters’ inner thoughts, and actions. These details
reveal characters’ behavior, psychology, personality,
and motive.
Types of Characters
Here are other character types that affect
characterization.
Round characters are crucial to the narrative; they are
richly characterized and demonstrate a variety of
personality traits. They encounter conflict and affect
change, and they transform in response to those
experiences.
Round Character
• A round character is a complex character. These characters
have multidimensional personalities and distinct motives,
flaws, qualities and backgrounds. They have genuine desires
to do things, and their rich, well-defined personalities often
include conflicting characteristics, helping the story to
progress.
Flat Character
• Flat characters are secondary and incidental. Because
they exert little influence over the plot, they are less
developed and tend to exhibit a single personality trait.
Flat Character
• A flat character is a simple character. They have one- or two-
dimensional personalities and are relatively uncomplicated.
Most flat characters only have one or two characteristics or
personality traits, and they lack depth and don’t defy the
simple formulas that define them. Many flat characters
come from well-known stereotypes to help audiences
quickly understand who they are.
Flat Characters
• Flat characters rarely have the ability to change during a
story or surprise the audience. While they may be simple,
flat characters don’t necessarily reflect poor writing skills or
have dull personalities. Instead, they are often vivid or
distinct but simple characters, and they are important for
storytelling purposes. Flat characters support round
characters, and they help advance the plot of the story.
Exercise #1: Write a FULL Description
When it comes to writing characters, most of us focus on the facial features, things like hair
color, eye color, etc.
A great way to begin getting to know your character is to do a full description of them. In a
book, we might not do this to the extent you might in a creative writing exercise, which is why
it’s good to practice here.
Here are some things to consider:
•Skin/hair/eye color
•Do they have any warts or moles?
•What is their hairstyle?
•What is their build?
•Do they have any scars, tattoos, etc?
• What is their general complexion? Is their skin smooth and silky, rough and calloused, or
even bruised and battered?
•What default facial expressions do they have?
•What does he/she smell like?
Exercise #1: Try to imagine every meticulous detail about your hero, and describe it as you
would when writing a book. Leave nothing out, and be thorough, because not all of this will
end up in your novel. You could even write it from the perspective of another character
observing them.

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